The invention describes a medical arm bandage to surround and guide the forearm and the upper arm and shoulder.
Depending on their design and their field of indication, orthopaedic bandages exert a fixing, guiding, supporting and/or assisting function on the limbs of the human body.
These medical bandages have to have a three-dimensional shape to correspond to the anatomical conditions, so as to be able to act on the human body from the outside with a form fit and friction fit.
Medical bandages of this type are produced by cutting out blanks from sheet-like material, for example from neoprene, knits or woven fabrics. The anatomically adapted shape is achieved by the shape of the blanks or darts, for example using gusseting, and the subsequent joining together of the blanks, as is also customary in clothing.
The joining together can be done by sewing, gluing and other usual methods.
Another possible way of producing the medical bandages is shaped knitting using flat-knitting machines or circular-knitting machines. However, this method is limited in terms of the possibility of shaping and the choice of materials. In particular, only two-dimensional shaping is possible. The third dimension is only obtainable by subsequent sewing together.
Bandages in which foam rubber is deformed by compression molding to give different thicknesses are also known. The intention thereby is for the elastic properties of the material to be changed locally due to the differing density of the foam after the deformation. A bandage of this type is, for example, described in WO 95/32690.
It is furthermore known to shape thermoplastic plates in suitable anatomical form so as to give orthopaedic ortheses and prostheses. These materials, e.g. polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene or a polypropylene copolymer, have a thermoplastic deformation range of approximately 170.degree. C. to 250.degree. C. and are substantially rigid after cooling, so that they are not used for medical bandages.
DE P 43 14 785 discloses a bandage system, in particular for acromioclavicular dislocations and lateral clavicular fractures. The bandage system is composed of a tubular part which accommodates the forearm and the upper arm and consists of a radially elastic woven material which is, however, essentially non-extendable in the longitudinal direction, a supporting band, a holding band, fastening means which are provided on the abovementioned bands in order to form holding loops, and a tensile strap. A bandage of this type is indeed suitable to alleviate the specified indications, but it is very complex to produce. Furthermore, the tubular design often makes it difficult for the patient to put the bandage on without pain.
The generally known bandages for this sphere of indication have a tightly closed design which inevitably leads to it only being possible for the bandages to be put on without pain with an additional person assisting. These bandages very frequently also result in unpleasant sweating with heat accumulating because of the generally closed design.
The more simply designed bandages, which generally only comprise two straps, do not have the sweating problem but their design means that they are generally questionable and thus unsatisfactory with regard to their treatment reliability and function.
The object of the invention was therefore to provide a bandage which has an open design and a high degree of treatment reliability, and which can be put on without pain without a third party assisting.